Back or accent lighting on the cheap?

J

JaredSMark

Active member
I've got my key, fill & hair lighting covered. This time I want to do some back & accent lighting on the cheap. I've read stories about LED lighting causing a strobing effect... should I be concerned about that?

What brand/line of lights should I look into that will last but are pretty cheap for this application? Doesn't have to be fancy. I'm debating on whether I should get 2-3 really cheap tungstens and use some modifiers and gels, or if I should get something completely different like LEDs or just anything else that may work.
 
Jeez, could be about anything. If you want some shafts of light streaking across curtains... fresnels would do it. Open face and flags would do it.

I don't get the idea of "this light's a key and this light's for hair and this light's for accents". Unless every shot you create is the same.

The main issues in lighting are color temp, output, throw and focus. I tend to focus on temp first in putting a kit together for a given gig. HIDs & flo's vs. tungsten; but even then I'll often bring both, if I want a cool backlight or a warm whatever. After that it's all about the look. My key might be some big open faced units bounced or blowing through a big silk. It might be a 3" fresnel raking across cheekbones. It might be a biax flo closed down to a slot. Or any combo of the above, with any sort of bounce or diffusion or flags thrown in.

Think of lights being grouped by their best-uses and modified uses. I've gotten beautiful shots with three rectangular open-faced theatrical units (essentially "professional" shop lights) and various cards, scrims and reflectors. I've done images I love with just one fresnel. It's really not about specific pieces of gear, it's seeing the look in your eye and finding it with what you have, in partnership with the existing light.

Unless your interest is just "three point interview", which seems to be the auto-pilot thing many folks like to do.
 
I probably should have given more detail, so here it is: I'm shooting inside a recording studio and I'll need a few spots for illuminating objects of my choice. Right now I've got track lighting installed, and actually, it looks perfect the way it is. I've got 6 areas of the studio lit just right, all from the PARs in the ceiling with custom snoots on them. However, my big problem is that these little things are way too underpowered to show up on my DSLR. I've got to crank the ISO up to 6400 to get anything halfway decent as far as exposure, when I was at about 640 for the subject recently for example.

In the end I'll take a few lights, make snoots for them and shine them on the studio contraptions that I need to. I also wouldn't mind using some LED strip lights or something else for an effect either. Just hope these lights will be powerful enough to match the subject being lit.
 
I think could install 100w JDR lamps in those. Can't speak as to whether or not they'll overheat but it should be physically possible to do. You could use some hampshire frost in the supplied gel frame to get rid of the imperfections in the beam.
 
gel in MR16 birdies lasts very little time - as the damn things are VERY hot with 50W lamps, let alone upping the wattage! If you soften them with diffuser, they also lose all their punch. 50W is a lot in a narrow beam, and sometimes unnoticeable when diffused!
 
You can't beat 300 watt 3" fresnels for this sort of thing. I've been very happy with the cool lights models and they come out often for DSLR shoots, where I just don't need as much oomph from my lights.

I have a decent collection of small fresnels, from 150's with 2" lenses up to the 300's. They seem to pop up on eBay often, older theatrical units, moles, LTM peppers. The Century models are really pretty nice with about a 1.5" lens. They get overlooked a lot (except for Moles and Peppers which are fairly desirable) because of their small size and low power, but they're dynamite accent lights. They're also good for music video or stylized interview stuff where you want a fresnel in-camera with a little flare.
 
Moseph said:
I think could install 100w JDR lamps in those. Can't speak as to whether or not they'll overheat but it should be physically possible to do. You could use some hampshire frost in the supplied gel frame to get rid of the imperfections in the beam.
Click to expand...

My friend just got 10 of them and they're very insistent on not going higher than 75w, they do get very hot. We had some thick red gels in them though and they lasted fine for about a week before we had to swap them out.

We used them in a club and bar setting, and they were perfect for placing them in weird small places to get nice accents. You can't beat a midget or an inky, but for the price, these are worth thinking about.
 
Michael Carter said:
I have a decent collection of small fresnels, from 150's with 2" lenses up to the 300's. They seem to pop up on eBay often, older theatrical units, moles, LTM peppers. The Century models are really pretty nice with about a 1.5" lens.
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I'd be curious to see how these perform. I've always stayed away from Fresnels with really tiny lenses like Arri 150's and Pepper 100's since they're really not much brighter at full spot than at full flood, maybe a stop more. I have 3 midgets, these are about 3 stops brighter at full spot than full flood. I don't typically use them at full spot, but you never know...
RyanT said:
My friend just got 10 of them and they're very insistent on not going higher than 75w, they do get very hot. We had some thick red gels in them though and they lasted fine for about a week before we had to swap them out.

We used them in a club and bar setting, and they were perfect for placing them in weird small places to get nice accents. You can't beat a midget or an inky, but for the price, these are worth thinking about.
Click to expand...

Figured the heat might be a problem. Agreed on your opinion about units go though, I would go for a few small Fresnels so you're covered for most situations with something that's highly versatile, and then get some birdies for situations where you need a LOT of accent lights for cheap.
 
Yeah really if you want to nip this one in the bud, get a couple of dedo lights. They have a humongous spot flood range and are incredibly bright for their low wattage. You can also buy them with dimmers built in, truly the perfect accent light.
 
Moseph said:
I'd be curious to see how these perform. I've always stayed away from Fresnels with really tiny lenses like Arri 150's and Pepper 100's since they're really not much brighter at full spot than at full flood, maybe a stop more. I have 3 midgets, these are about 3 stops brighter at full spot than full flood. I don't typically use them at full spot, but you never know...
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That's kinda the thing for me though - with accent lights that small, I'm usually not wanting a lot of horsepower. Handy to have around, but a 300 or a 650 with a snoot or grid on a dimmer will give you more power. I like that I can get 4 or 5 of 'em in a case, and I've paid less than $50 a pop for 'em. And they're just so damn cute...
 
Dedo's for the win. Not cheap but so versatile. I have the dim-able 4 set.

RyanT said:
Yeah really if you want to nip this one in the bud, get a couple of dedo lights. They have a humongous spot flood range and are incredibly bright for their low wattage. You can also buy them with dimmers built in, truly the perfect accent light.
Click to expand...
 
Those Dedos were what I had in mind for the future. They're just mega-expensive considering that I'll need a few of them. If something happens in the next while and I have a few grand laying around, I'll probably get some.
 
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